-- voltaire and sean agree so and what is the french revolution. >> -- jean jacques rousseau and what is the french revolution. >> i think many people would flunk that test. >> 57 islamic countries. in addition, you have more than 50 non-aligned countries. what is non-aligned? north korea, zimbabwe, cuba, venezuela. people prefer their profits and not their values.

when it comes to the table, people understand that on one side you have israel and on the other side you have islamic countries and non-aligned countries. from one side, it is north korea and zimbabwe and cuba and iran, and we are from the other side. >> you are on the other side from north korea, cuba and iran for sure. let's ask some questions. >> from the beginning, the first question from martin. >> i am not going to talk about palestinians. i always enjoy talking about is

really politics. >> no, it is not fair. now you can ask a who barack. he is free and can speak openly -- ehud barak. he is free and can speak openly without restrictions. >> well, let me try. i think americans would be interested in your analysis of israeli happening in is reall politics. it appears that there is a rightward shift. is that true, and can you explain what happened to the electorate, why you joined with m as opposed to staying

separate? >> the first idea was presidential elections. in the united states, you have only two parties. in the last knesset, now in the knesset, we have 14 parties. in the previous knesset, we had 23 parties in the parliament, and we only have 120 members. 14 parties. you know how difficult it is to establish coalition. for these reasons, israel has about 29-31 ministers and numerous deputy ministers.

in a country like the united states, i think you have only 16 ministers. in a country like switzerland, they have only seven ministers. i think it is a very complicated, ineffective political system. we must change the political system. it is impossible to change reality with only two parties. at least four or five parties are necessary. but it is difficult to change political traditions, political and barman, political reality. we spent too much -- political environment, political reality. we spend too much money to change the law. it is a difficult political situation we have. only one government in our

history since 1948 has fulfilled a legal term. it was the gold my air -- golda meierboal th government, thanks to the yom kippur wall. our decision in this election to move forward as one big party was the first up towards this political reform. it is impossible to only preach and teach to others. you must give yourself some example of what you're willing to do. it was a small party that

started as a liberal party. step after step, they took the power. for real political forms, we need political blocs, and i hope to see it the next knesset this new reality, presidential elections, four or five big parties. >> first of all, thank you again for joining us. i do not think if you ran research in the streets of tel aviv or washington you would

find a lot of people who know who rousseau and voltaire are. if we want to wait until the palestinians know who they are, it is going to be a while. so let's put that aside for a second. the $10,000bout gdp. i think it is a lofty idea and a very good idea. let's assume that today the palestinians have $10,000 gdp. then what? >> again, in a moment, it is very easy to incite violence, to recruit terrorists when people are in a poor situation, a bad situation. today, with unemployment about

20% -- >> but he is giving you a hypothetical. >> i think is something we can achieve, $10,000. after this moment, the people will be ready because they have more to lose. today, many terrorists understand this is a way to feed their families, to get money from a radical, international movement, radical regimes. for them it as a way to feed their families. if they had more to lose, i think it will be completely different reality. i see for example in the balkan region what happens. remember, the about the region during the previous regime's -- balkan region during the , it was veryme's

similar, more similar to the middle east. after some really difficult time of civilian war, today you have a completely different balkan region. they dream of being part of the eu, part of nato. they speak with you not about the palestinian issues, but about trade, export, in poor, investments. the import, investment. when people are involved in economic development, they do not need incitements, terrorism or other issues.

>> can we have a microphone for dennis ross? >> this is not a hard one, just a straightforward one. you mentioned that in the last couple of months you have paid the salaries of most of those from the palestinian authority. that comes from the duties you collect on goods that come in from the palestinian authorities. will you withhold 7% of revenues -- 70% of revenues in response to what just happened, or will you continue to provide those moneys that create the salaries and bowed to the point you're making in the importance of the economy. is it in their economic interests to avoid a vacuum? >> first of all, as you know, we

signed not only the oslo accords, but also the peace accords. there is a mechanism, how to collect money for debt. today it is our biggest problem, outstanding debt to the electricity company. about 700 million shekels. those are very serious troubles come a very serious -- troubles, very serious problems. we have international obligations. this is in clear opposition to their obligations, to their signature on the oslo peace accord. we do not need to pay for their

electricity. we paid for the palestinians, and mahmoud abbas bought a new jet for $53 million. the prime minister of israel does not have his jet, but not with the boss has his jet -- mahmoud abbas has his jet that he bought three months ago. our problem today with the palestinians is not to help them, not to develop their economy, but to deal with corruption in their ministration. we draw our conclusions in this situation as we have today.

we will try to compensate all of our losses, especially with our electricity company. we will respect all of our obligations, but it is not our duty to pay every month the mahmoud abbas apparatus. >> you will cut back. >> i am sure iran will pay all of his debts and for all of his problems, no doubt. >> a question from this side of the room which i have ignored. and wonder if he could get the microphone. >> thank you. my name is muhammed. i'm the ambassador of egypt.

someone next to me at the table suggested it would be a good idea if i gave my own interpretation of the subjects the honorable minister has expressed. i think that would take a couple of hours. i will make a few remarks, and in the and i will ask a question. >> really heavyweight, all questions. >> first of all, regarding the arab spring, specifically countries like egypt. we do have poverty and disparities in income, and we do have a number of problems, but i would like to assure you that we have a vibrant middle class. youth, and werant us

are involved in the process of putting forth a democracy. i would like to assure you that the problems we have, we will succeed in resolving them. that will have a tremendous influence in the region. regarding the issue of the developments and poverty and unemployment in occupied territories, there is no doubt that the stranglehold that israel has over those territories throttles the palestinian economy and makes it impossible for them to grow. if we put a condition on any steps toward peace on the palestinians achieving certain gdp per capita, then basically

we are putting the palestinians in a catch-22 position. >> mr. ambassador, cut to the question. >> the question is, are you saying that you will not be interested in peace talks until the palestinians reach $10,000 per capita? >> thank you, your excellency, first of all. i really wish you to overcome all your troubles and to resolve all problems. i think it is very important for all the region to see a successful and stable egypt. it is in our interests exactly like you. you are our biggest neighbor. i hope we will really enjoy the good neighborhood, maybe in the

next year, maybe in 10 years, but i hope that one day we will enjoy a wide and stable neighborhood in our region. regarding the talks, from the first day of this government, our suggestion was to immediately resume direct talks. we agreed to proximity talks, not only to direct talks. you cannot -- ask dennis ross or others how many times we tried to resume direct talks with the palestinians. we agreed to free up construction activity. we had a meeting in jordan.

we were ready for gestures of goodwill. some people in this meeting, in this hall, they know exactly what were a our proposals. you can ask them what was in jordan and what was the reason that this meeting failed, not because of us. i think we are ready really even today to resume direct talks without any preconditions. it must be clear, even today, even tomorrow and the day before yesterday, the one who made everything to avoid direct talks was not motocross. -- was mahmoud abbas. >> we're getting in several questions the same point, which is the objective of these talks,

eventually what they would lead to. first of all, regardless of the gdp, do you see a two state solution, an independent palestine next to israel? >> israel is ready to recognize a two state solution. it was in a speech in 2009. the right wing government recognized two state solution. >> you are not backing away from that in any way. >> no, it is impossible to change. we respect all obligations of the previous government. >> you can imagine such a palestinian state that is an economic work in progress, that is not the $10,000 gdp level that you described, yes?

>> of course. only to pay lip service, it is really a very easy solution. from 1948-1967, 19 years, all this territory was under arab control. the gaza strip was a part of egypt. judea was part of jordan. i do not remember anyone who spoke during this time about an independent palestinian state. they had an opportunity to establish a real palestinian state. in our historical experience, we are ready to move forward, but again, the problem is they are not able to have elections

within the palestinian authority. the tensions between the government, the palestinian authority and hamas. we do not know who has the real rights over the palestinian people. >> it has been a pleasure talking with you. i appreciate all of your thinking and your opinions. >> thank you, my pleasure. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> later tonight on c-span, we will also show you secretary of state hillary clinton's keynote address from the same event. >> so particularly, in light of today's announcement, let me reiterate that this administration, like previous administrations, has been very clear with israel, that these

activities set back the cause of a negotiated peace. we all need to work together to find path forward in negotiations that can finally deliver on its two state solution. that must remain our goal. >> secretary of state clinton talks about the cease-fire between israel and palestine. israel opposes a plan to build new settlements and the political reality -- israel's plan to build new settlements, and the political reality in the middle east. that is tonight at 10:00 on c- span. >> we had 12 million men under arms. we had two thousand officers and generals. today we have 1000 flight officers and generals and 1.2 million under arms. the ratio is totally out of whack.

we have an admirable for almost every ship in the navy. -- admiral for almost every ship in the navy, not a captain, an admiral. we have done is go through and find areas where we could transfer responsibility out of the pentagon and consolidate programs and save a significant amount of money. >> this weekend, you can talk with oklahoma senator tom coburn about the fiscal cliff, affordable care act, and the future of the republican party on book tv. the senator has written several reports, including his latest, the debt bomb. that is live sunday at noon eastern on book tv on c-span-2. >> now we talk to a capitol hill

reporter about the senate's work on the defense authorization bill. >> the senate has been in a holding pattern on the defense authorization bill, but finally found a way to start consideration of amendments. what broke the logjam? >> rand paul had a desire to bring an amendment that would have applied sixth amendment rights to citizens who had been taken in the war on terror on u.s. homeland. he was concerned he would not get the time. senator mccain is the ranking member of the armed services committee. he assured him he would not try to block the amendment. alternately, senator dianne feinstein agreed to what senator paul favors. that amendment was approved.

>> there were several other notable amendments to the bill. can you tell us about those? >> the iran sanctions amendment would limit the type of materials related to shipping and other things iran does. it is a pretty tough amendment, but not as tough as what the house would prefer to do. that was passed by a large majority. >> senator carl levin and senator john mccain are managing this bill. we understand they hope to finish it in three days. that will not happen. how much more work is there to do? >> is remains to be seen. a lot needs to be sorted out behind the scenes. i do believe they would like to be finished by monday. that is where we are now. >> the house approved its defense authorization bill earlier this year. how does the senate bill differ? >> i was just speaking to some people on the house side, and

they do not see any major difficulties in getting this done. last year, they were able to get a conference done in roughly nine days. i was assured they believe they can do the same this time. it does not look like it is going to be terribly contentious. both committees were trying to keep this non-controversial. as you know, we are coming to the end of the session so they need it quickly. >> do you think they will be able to do it by the end of the year? >> absolutely. >> thank you for your time. >> my pleasure. >> the senate returns on monday at 2:00 p.m. to resume consideration on the defense authorization bill and at 5:00 p.m. to debate the district court judge for maryland. the senate will then vote on the judicial nomination of 5:30 p.m. and follow that with a procedural vote on the defense authorization bill. live courage of the senate on c-